Tuesday, September 20, 2016

August 24, 2016 - Portland, OR

What a good night’s sleep we had. Slept past 9 am. The sun was out and the sky was very blue. It felt so nice outside.

We discussed and decided to check with the office again to see if we can stay another day here. Erwin went over and paid for one night’s stay. We did not even have to move our Lil’ Home (LH). (We did not understand why the lady told Edith yesterday that the site was already booked for someone else today). We were much relieved because there were still some places we wanted to visit in Portland. If the site was not available or there were no spaces left we would have moved our LH to Erwin’s sister’s place and park on the street, but we did not have to.

We went over to Peggy and Paul’s house. Paul and Peggy offered to use their car to take us to places today, so Erwin won’t have to worry about trying to follow directions while driving.

Peggy suggested that we go to Historic Columbia Cemetery first before visiting other places. We tried to find this cemetery yesterday, but our GPS led us to a different place and we could not find it.

Peggy reading the epitaph

The Historic Columbia Cemetery is at 1151 Columbia Blvd, is a pioneer cemetery. There were some burials that had no dates of deaths, but simply said “At Rest”.

We went to check out Paul Bunyan Statue that is on N. Interstate Ave in the Kenton neighborhood of Portland, OR. The statue is made of cement and steel and stands 31’ tall. It has been there since 1959. It is in need of minimal repairs and repaint; however, there is a neighborhood association that will take care of it. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

Paul and Peggy wanted to take us to the viewpoint that is on the campus of University of Portland. There is a bluff that overlooks The Willamette River, Portland downtown, Mt Hood, several bridges, shipyards.

Statue of an Indian guide with Clark & York

SkeletonsWe assumed it is a biology class preparing for Halloween?

Peggy and Erwin

Next stop was to check out Adidas Big Shoes, a pair of giant shoes at Adidas America Headquarters on N. Greeley Ave.. Each shoe is 15’ long. In the past the shoes were painted in different colors: black/gold, green, orange, etc.

We meandered through downtown Portland, saw several bronze statues. There were so many of them! We would have liked to stroll through the streets of downtown, but there was not much time and it was not easy to find an empty parking space. We will do that next time we visit Portland.

Then we went to Pittock Manison to walk around the property and to get a view of downtown Portland and the surroundings. Admission fee for seniors is $9, but we did not pay to go inside the mansion. While Paul and Peggy sat on the bench we strolled around while admiring flowers that lined up along the walkway. The view from the overlook was amazing. The mansion was styled in French-Renaissance. It was built in 1909 and owned by Henry Pittock and his wife, Georgiana. It has 46 rooms ( no idea how many bathrooms there are). Mr. Pittock, a newspaper editor/publisher, was apparently the first one to climb Mt. Hood, and did it 4 times. The flower gardens were so beautiful!

Great view of Portland downtown and Mt. Hood

European Cranberry Bush

Erwin pointing at Mt Hood in the distance

Self explanatory!

Paul and Peggy wanted to show us the face mask that is situated in front of Providence Park (an outdoor sports complex). The stadium is the home of Portland Timbers soccer team.

We left downtown Portland to go to the Marquam Hill district to get a ride on the aerial tram that carries commuters between South Waterfront area and Oregon Health & Science University. The fare is $4.50 round trip, but if you get a ride from the top to go down it is free. There is an overlook before getting on the tram going down. You can barely see Mt. St Helens and Mt. Hood. The tram crosses over I-5. It was a very nice ride.

It was already past 3 pm and we had not had lunch. Paul and Peggy suggested Overlook Restaurant Family Dining at 1332 N. Skidmore St. Their cuisine is American and Greek. According to TripAdvisor.com it is ranked #469 out of 3,391. Paul and Edith had pan roasted chicken that came with mashed potatoes, gravy and a small side of green beans. Peggy had country fried steak with baked potato and salad. Erwin had the fried steak, too, but it came with fried eggs and pancakes. The dinner was very good. The service was fast and the waiter was very friendly. Peggy and Edith had their leftover meals boxed to go.

We went back to Paul and Peggy's house, stayed a while to chat some more before saying so long. Thank you, Paul for driving safely and taking us to places. Peggy, thank you for thinking of places to take us to visit. We really appreciated it very much.

The traffic going to Hayden Island took a long while. The lady in a red car behind us kept tailgating us so so close. Edith kept telling her to back off a bit, but she would not budge. However, after Edith took a picture of her she backed off a bit!

Portland, OR has about 14 bridges! Each bridge's design is very interesting. The oldest is Hawthorne Bridge that was built in 1910.

Framed Picture of famous and old bridges that Paul and Peggy have in their house

We were still too full to eat anything for supper. Erwin did the laundry while Edith caught up on today's post and edited some pictures.

We will leave for Kent, WA tomorrow morning. It will be a 3 hour drive from here to KOA Campground. We will be there for 2 days.

About Me

Erwin was born in Minnesota, went to/graduated from Minn Deaf School. Spent 11 years working for General Electric before he decided to become a welder.
Edith was born in Florida. Went to/graduated from FL School for the Deaf. Graduated with B.S. in Home Economics from Gallaudet College (now University).
Worked as a management analyst for Dept of Agriculture, retired after 31 years of service. Moved back to FL in 2004. Sold our house in 2016 to start RVing full-time.